Tampa Bay Lightning streak lives on, but signs of the end may be at hand

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
October 24, 2017

The streak lives, long live the streak.

Only, well, see the thing is, there was a problem with the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 victory against the Carolina Huricanes on Tuesday. It was deceiving.

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I don’t mean to be a buzz kill or rain on the Lightning parade, which has marched out to the best start in franchise history at 8-1-1. Tampa Bay has not lost a game in regulation since Oct. 7 and is on an eight-game point streak, the only blemish during that stretch a shootout loss in New Jersey.

Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov continue to terrorize defending teams, Stamkos with is fifth consecutive multi-point game to extend his league lead in points and assists while Kucherov found a (very) late goal to take the league lead with his 11th of the season. Both players have points in every game to start the year.

Even Mikhail Sergachev, who by the way was in the lineup for his 10th game of the season to solidify his standing on this team for the foreseeable future, found the back of the net for the third consecutive game and now leads all defensemen with four goals.

All reasons for this team to feel really good. And with 17 out of a possible 20 points to start the season, it might seem nitpicky to talk negative about a victory.

But there are signs starting to show that a letdown is on the horizon if the team does not take note before Thursday’s game against Detroit.

Tampa Bay was not particularly sharp for good portions of Tuesday’s game. Passes were not connecting, the puck was fumbled on more than a few occasions.

At times the puck management was not good, especially in the third period when the Lightning were trying to hold the lead. In total, the Lightning were credited with 22 giveways (though admittedly this is still a very arbitrary stat).

Those are not the signs of a team on top of their game.

It’s something head coach Jon Cooper pointed to right away after the game.

”We had a two-goal lead and we just came out and gave it to our goaltender and said, ‘You go win this one for us.’,’’ Cooper said. “It was a little disappointing the way we played. We take the penalty (on the opening shift of the third), we get scored on just after that and it was pretty much a fire drill after that. We played with fire a little bit tonight. We got away with it but we can’t continue to have third periods like that.’’

Those are the words of a coach that is acutely aware of the signs of the team starting to come just a bit unraveled. The message was certainly conveyed to the players as well.

”We got away with one here, but good teams find a way to win,’’ defenseman Victor Hedman said.

There were plays, such as Stamkos putting a puck across the middle of the offensive zone during 4-on-4 play that nearly led to a 2-on-1 break the other way with Tampa Bay up by a goal, that the team got away with. Fortunately for the Lightning, their goaltender continues to rock solid behind them, helping clean up some of those mistakes along the way.

Andrei Vasilevskiy won his seventh consecutive game and he has allowed two or fewer goals in his past five starts after allowing three or more in each of his first four starts. In those five games Vasilevskiy is 5-0 with a 1.16 goals against average and .970 save percentage.

Vasilevskiy is doing exactly what he needs to do to keep his team in the game and give them a chance to win almost every night.

”We knew this was going to be a close game,’’ Stamkos said. “Obviously, 5-1 wasn’t very indicative of the game. It was a 2-1 game. It was tight-checking, and Vasy played great. If you ask anyone in this room, he’s one of the best in the world. We’re happy he’s on our team, and he’s a big reason why we’ve started the way we have.’’

But the team can’t keep relying on Vasilevskiy to bail them out, they have to cut down on some of the chances their goaltender is facing.

“It’s great that we got the two points,’’ Cooper said. “As a coach, you’re happy with that, but in the end, you just can’t keep playing like that down the stretch, not that we have. We’ve played pretty well the last few weeks here, but we let them back into it and we gave them momentum. We were fortunate to get those empty-netters or who knows what would have happened.’’

Postgame notes:. C Cedric Paquette missed his third consecutive game with an unspecified upper body injury. … Tampa Bay scratched D Slater Koekkoek and RW Gabriel Dumont. … C Steven Stamkos and RW Nikita Kucherov each extended their season-opening scoring streak to 10 games, one game short of matching the team record of 11 consecutive games to start the season set by Marty St. Louis. … C Tyler Johnson scored his 93rd career goal, moving past Ryan Malone for 10th on the all-time franchise list.

My three stars:
1.Lightning G Andrei Vasilevskiy – Seventh consecutive victory, 31 saves

2.Lightning RW Ryan Callahan – Rewarded with an empty net goal, 3 blocked shots, 4 hits

3.Hurricanes RW Justin Williams – Nine shot attempts, active around the net

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